Shortland Street Hospital
| Shortland Street | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre |
Medical drama Soap opera |
| Created by | Bettina Hollings Caterina De Nave Jason Daniel |
| Directed by | Oliver Driver Kiel McNaughton Katherine McRae Ian Hughes Richard Barr Geoff Cawthorn |
| Starring | (Ensemble) |
| Opening theme | Graham Bollard |
| Ending theme | Graham Bollard |
| Country of origin | New Zealand |
| Original language(s) | English, Maori |
| No. of seasons | 26 (as of 21 April 2017) |
| No. of episodes | 6,220 (as of 21 April 2017) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Don Reynolds Alan Coleman Caterina De Nave Rachel Lang Tony Holden Simon Bennett John Barnett |
| Producer(s) | Caterina De Nave (1992) Brian Lennane (1992–93) Tony Holden (1994–95) Gavin Srawhan (1995–96) Alan Coleman (1995) Judith Trye (1996–97) Lisa Page (2000–01) Harriet Crampton (2001–05) Katie Wolfe (2005) Jason Daniel (2005–08) Steven Zanoski (2009–13) Simon Bennett (1997–2000, 2013–2016) Maxine Fleming (2016–) |
| Location(s) | 8 Tolich Pl, Lincoln North, Waitakere, Auckland 0610 New Zealand |
| Editor(s) | Anna Benedikter Matthew Allison |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | South Pacific Pictures Grundy Television FremantleMedia Australia |
| Distributor | TVNZ |
| Release | |
| Original network | TVNZ 2 |
| Picture format |
576i 4:3 (1992–2007) 576i 16:9 widescreen (2007–2011) 1080i (2011–Present) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 25 May 1992 – Present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital, first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992. It is the country's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 6,000 episodes and 24 years, and is one of the most watched television programmes in New Zealand.
The show was originally screened as five half-hour episodes each week and initially receiving mixed reviews on its premiere. After its launch it dropped in ratings and would have been cancelled if TVNZ had not ordered a year's worth of episodes in advance. TVNZ renewed the production in early 1993 when the show's rating had picked up, and it now has "long-term public enthusiasm". Today, it is one of New Zealand's highest-rated shows, frequently making AGB Nielsen Media Research's top 5 programmes of the week.
After the cancellation of Gloss, Television New Zealand noticed the lack of New Zealand content on their channel and in 1990 set about creating a local equivalent of the Australian soap Neighbours.Greg McGee at South Pacific Pictures wanted to do a series about the new private clinics emerging under New Zealand's Labour government, and suggested the idea to scriptwriter Dean Parker, who declined due to a dislike of private medicine, so TV2 and South Pacific Pictures purchased a formula from Grundy Television, who get a royalty cheque for every broadcast. $10 million was given for an initial 230 episodes. Caterina De Nave was hired as the show's producer and subsequently travelled to Australia to work with Grundy Television to work out an idea for the five times a week soap. TV2 programmer Bettina Hollings suggested the setting of a hospital after reading an article detailing ideal locations of a drama, which included a hospital, a police station and a school. De Nave worked with several storyliners including Jason Daniel and they worked out an outline of the show.
De Nave noticed Neighbours and Home and Away had a generally straightforward Australian cast and wished for the cast of her show to be culturally diverse to reflect New Zealand. She also wanted the cast to have strong female characters to attract the necessary female audience. Daniel created the character of Kirsty while De Nave created Meredith and Ken Catran created Hone. The character of Stuart was originally planned to be gay but the plans made TVNZ nervous and were scrapped. De Nave also wished to counter-stereotype races and made Polynesian Sam Aleni a paramedic as there was only one paramedic of Polynesian descent throughout New Zealand. De Nave decided to make the setting that of a private hospital as it reflected New Zealand medicine at the time.
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